


Snow Day at the Shrine

by Ciryes



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Gratuitous snowball fight action, Slice of Life, Winter, adorable statue youkai, inaccurate descriptions of thieves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 07:52:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17158148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciryes/pseuds/Ciryes
Summary: Aunn Komano faithfully guards the Hakurei Shrine even on the chilliest winter days. Today, she unexpectedly makes a new friend!





	Snow Day at the Shrine

Snowflakes fell gently upon the Hakurei Shrine grounds, the winter chill layering soft and white powder on the stone path, covering lanterns and statues, filling the donation box, and-

“B-brr, hrrhhr!”

The shoulders of one komainu youkai dutifully standing watch at the top of the stairs. Big clumps of fallen snow toppled off her shoulders as she moved for the first time in an hour, shivering in the freezing air. Though the perfect image of a protector statue required her to stand still, fierce and intimidating, slowly being turned into a snowsicle in December tended to make one mildly shaky, and it wasn’t really her fault, she thought, that she just dropped even more snow onto the path.

This, she figured, was unavoidable. When the first few flakes had begun to fall, she had done her best to leap at them, catching them in her hands or with her tongue, trying to keep the offending substance off the immaculately-swept path that Reimu liked to maintain, but this became more difficult as it began coming down more heavily, and soon there was nothing she could do but watch as it began to coat the stone tiles.

It had taken her a while to ascertain that this strange flaky cold substance coming from the sky was not harmful, but she still regarded it with a certain amount of suspicion. She was Aunn Komano the komainu, and protecting this sacred place was the duty for which she was carved from stone. Anything looking to get the better of her would find itself sorely disappointed, even if it came down upon her in millions of little fluffy parts.

“Heh, what are you doing?”

At the sound of a voice, Aunn’s eyes snapped towards the direction it came from, spotting a person with a tall, pointy hat grinning at her. She tilted her head, causing clumps of snow to fall of the brim, much like it had fallen off the girl’s own shoulders.

“I’m guarding this shrine!” she announced, puffing up her chest proudly, because that, after all, was what she was doing, and she was quite proud of this fact!

“Guarding it from… what?” the visitor asked, looking around. “The snow?”

Aunn took a moment to gaze around, but saw no other people than the one talking to her. She gave a somewhat confused look.

“Now don’t be tellin’ me you’ve never seen snow before.”

The youkai tensed up, face going slightly red. Clearly there was something she wasn’t getting here, and it was making her feel awfully embarrassed. She was trying to come off as fierce, but right now she only felt incredibly silly!

“Jeez, don’t blow a gasket, kid, I’m only teasin’. I know you’re, what, a few months old?”

“I’ve been here for centuries!” she protested, a small pout forming on her lips. “Guarding this shrine from evil!”

“Yeah, but you haven’t been animate long enough to see snow, have you?”

Aunn hesitated again – she didn’t want to admit it, but this person seemed nice enough, and what she was saying was true, after all.

“…Yeah.”

“Well, I’ll bring you up to speed! Snow is that stuff all around! It’s falling out of the sky, covering everything in white… you’re standing in it right now!”

“…Ohhhh!” the girl gasped in realization, gazing around at the frigid stuff whose name she now knew. “…It’s cold.”

“Well yeah, sure it is, it’s frozen! But that’s all it is, ice. It ain’t gonna rob the shrine or anything. You should be on the lookout for real thieves.”

“Oh! Oh, you’re right. What do thieves look like?”

“Oh, they’re nasty sorts alright, they come flying up on broomsticks wearing big pointy hats, have friendly chats with shrine maidens and leave donations in negative numbers.”

Aunn paused, staring up the girl in front of her. She fitted… nearly all of those criteria!

“Are you a thief!?” she asked accusingly, pointing a finger.

“Who, me? What a rude accusation! I’m Marisa Kirisame, an honest and humble magician. You guard this shrine and you don’t recognize the proprietor’s best friend? Shame on you!”

“O-oh. Sorry.” She hastily withdrew her hand, looking even more embarrassed. This guarding business was surprisingly confusing work.

“Aww, don’t feel bad. I bet when a real threat comes, you’ll be ready. Now, I’m going to perform the sacred duty of inspecting the donation box. You keep that vigilant lookout of yours up, y’hear?”

The witch patted her head, and she felt a surge of joy at the touch and the praise, a smile worming its way onto her face. “Yes! I will!”

“That’s the spirit! Reimu’ll be proud of you, for sure. Seeya around, kid.”

“Bye, miss Marisa!”

Now knowing that the snow was nothing to be feared, and knowing exactly what to look for in potential shrine-invaders, Aunn began her watch again with a renewed vigor. For nearly an hour, the grounds were peaceful, and as the snow continued to pile up it almost seemed like nobody would even bother to make the journey, for reasons nefarious or otherwise. However, just as she was beginning to grow weary of looking out at a great white nothing, she spotted a figure coming up the stairs.

A quick look over revealed a _pointy hat_ , and a switch practically flipped inside her at the visual, and she leaped across the path, practically tackling them as she knocked them to the ground, eyes fierce and teeth bared.

“Thief! Thief! Thief with a pointy hat! If you’ve come to this sacred place to do harm you’ll never escape!”

The stranger, however, only seemed extremely confused at this response, and honestly a little terrified, stammering and struggling, which caused her to loosen her grip a little and listen.

“-wasn’t t-trying to do a-anything dishonest, I s-swear! I only came here to see if Miss Hakurei was around, I-I’m sorry if I’ve upset you, p-please don’t eat me! Y-you won’t eat me, r-right?”

Eat people? Now that was absurd! Aunn sat up, gazing at the possibly-an-intruder with interest. This person was quite small, with a gray dress, braided hair and ears that seemed too long. She had a pointy hat, yes, and she was here for Reimu, but then again, she wasn’t riding a broomstick or doing anything with the donation box. Perhaps she was too quick in her judgment?

“You’re not a thief?” she asked cautiously.

“O-of course not!” the stranger said, rising wobblily to her feet and dusting snow off her dress. “My name is Narumi, I’m just an honest Jizou statue, nothing more.”

Jizou? But if that was the case, then… this person was walking religious iconography! Aunn gasped, suddenly feeling incredibly shameful to have desecrated an innocent statue youkai!

“I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, hands rising to her face in dismay. “Had I known that, I would have given you a far more friendly welcome! You see, you looked like a thief, and I got confused!”

“A thief?”

“Yes, with your pointy hat.”

“Well… I wouldn’t know much about that. My hat keeps the snow off me, that’s all.”

…Huh. Also a valid reason to wear a hat like that, Aunn supposed.

“Again, I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m trying to keep this shrine safe, but admittedly, I usually have a hard time. Things can be quite confusing.”

“Keep the shrine safe?” Narumi asked curiously. “How come, do you work for Reimu? I’ve never seen you around here before.”

“Yes, I do! I’m her faithful komainu, and I’ve been here since I was sculpted!” she answered proudly. “Though I have only been able to move quite recently…”

“Oh, I see!” the other youkai replied with an understanding nod. “Matara’s divine power brought you to life, but before you were only a statue, like me.”

“Yes! That’s what happened! Is that what happened to you, too?”

“Me? Oh, no, I’ve been around longer than that. The Forest of Magic is full of magical energy, and that’s how I came to life. In that way, I’m more arcane than divine, which is… almost a little sacrilegious, come to think of it.” She put a finger to her chin, cheeks reddening slightly. This was all above Aunn’s comprehensive pay grade though, and she excitedly took the other girl’s hand.

“That means we’re almost the same! I’m Aunn! We can be friends, and protect the shrine together while Reimu is away!”

“F-friends? Really?” Narumi gasped. “I, I hadn’t expected you to… oh, oh, I’d like that!” She nodded enthusiastically, almost desperately. “I’m so very lonely all the time, I’ve never quite had a real friend before.”

“Then it’s settled! We’ll be the best guards there ever were.”

“Y-yes! Yes, we will,” Narumi agreed, though with a little less confidence.

Aunn then faced out over the stairs again, bouncing occasionally on her heels to see higher, but otherwise standing stone-still. After about a minute, Narumi spoke up again.

“So… are you just going to stand still there all day?”

“I have to be on the lookout for thieves!”

“But… I don’t think this shrine actually sees much activity. And who’s going to steal from a place like this anyway? There’s barely anything of value to take.”

Aunn shook her head. “You don’t understand. The moment my vigilance falters, I have betrayed my duty to the gods. I must!”

“Well…” The girl thought for a moment, fiddling with the end of one of her braids. “Maybe we could do something more fun while we wait to see if anybody shows up.”

Curious at the suggestion, the komainu turned her head. “Fun?”

“Yes, fun! Like… hmm. I will admit, I spend far too much time standing around doing nothing, as well. But… well, I must say that anything I do with Miss Marisa tends to be more exciting than anything I usually do! Sometimes even a little terrifying, like when she shot lasers at me in the middle of making tea, or when there was a door stuck to my back and she went inside-“

Aunn stared blankly, clearly she and Marisa got up to some kind of crazy activity when they were bored that she wasn’t sure she completely understood. Noticing her expression, Narumi cut herself off.

“W-well, what I’m saying is, why waste a whole day standing around when we could be doing something like… this!?”

She reached down, gathering up a lump of snow in her hands, and tossed it at Aunn, hitting the girl’s horn and causing her to stumble back.

“Ha…! A-aha, um… oh, oh gosh, are you okay? I don’t know why I did that! Miss Marisa usually doesn’t think things through before she acts, and, and so I thought it might be fun if – oh, oh no-“

For a brief moment she was terrified, thinking her impulse decision had lost her a friend, but to her surprise, the other girl began to giggle softly, making a snowball of her own and throwing it back. It hit Narumi square in the chest, and though she was stunned for a moment, she quickly realized that the game was on, and began making her next as a bright smile spread across her face.

The two began to lob snowballs back and forth at each other, dashing across the shrine’s courtyard to take cover behind stone lamps and trees, laughing and giggling as the icy clumps flew across the path. The fact that nearly every resident of Gensokyo had a natural affinity for dodging small, fast projectiles would usually make it a particularly intense and indecisive game, but Aunn, who wasn’t afraid to roll to dodge or faceplant into the dirt, was doing slightly better than Narumi, who seemed to not want to get the hem of her dress wet. Unfortunately, as a result, she ended up being the one to take the most hits, and any of the snowballs that impacted Aunn were hesitantly-thrown and small.

So naturally, when the komainu felt three successive whacks against the back, ice falling to the ground as a bunch of snowballs hit her in succession, she was taken somewhat aback.

“Ha! Sunny got her!”

The snowballs, of course, had not come from Narumi’s hand, but from a trio of mischievous fairies, standing beside the shrine with giddy grins on their faces. Evidently, they’d noticed the game of snowballs, and decided they wanted to join. Aunn, who appeared to be a lively and happy youkai, would be more than happy to let them join in, right?

_“Intruders!”_ she hollered, dropping the snowball she was halfway through preparing to point at the three, and they retreated slightly, looking a little startled.

“Um, Aunn, maybe they just want to play with us?” Narumi suggested, hurrying over with a worried look. “They’re only fairies.”

“Fairies are the enemy!” Aunn replied with such determination that it almost made her jump. “They’re noisy, they play pranks all the time, they steal things from the shrine and they get in the way when there’s an incident. That’s what Reimu says, and that means to make Reimu happy I have to keep them away from her shrine!”

 The fairy trio began to slowly retreat, sensing that this wasn’t going to end with a happy snowball fight, while Narumi approached Aunn, attempting to do her best to diffuse the situation, but the komainu’s eyes were locked firmly on the group ahead of her.

“You get the middle one! I’ll go for the sides!” she exclaimed, flying across the snow on all fours, and Narumi didn’t have time to wonder how she’d get two fairies at once before her body split into two identical copies, charging at either side. All of them panicked and scattered, but the one in the middle tripped and fell into the snow.

“Ah! Um, here…”

Narumi approached, gently helping her up, seeming a little embarrassed about the whole thing. The fairy she was looking at did too, seeming more tired than anything.

“I’m really sorry, I honestly don’t know what her deal is.”

“It’s fine,” the fairy reassured her, attempting to fix her blonde curls. “This kind of stuff happens to us all the time.”

“RUN AWAAAAAY!”

The other two fairies, unfortunately, were being chased by a slightly less forgiving statue-turned-youkai, and it was only a matter of time before she caught up to them, two bodies tackling two fairies to the ground, kicking and wiggling.

“Aunn, don’t be mean to them!” Narumi cried, running over as the single lucky fairy followed worriedly behind. “They just wanted to play, and I highly doubt they’re very mean…”

“Narumi, look, look, I caught them! Reimu’s going to be so proud of me when she sees I captured all of these annoying fairies for her!”

“W-well-“

She was interrupted by what seemed like a rather intense argument between the fairies, however.

“Star, dang it, you tripped me!”

“Nuh-uh, you tripped me! I could have gotten away!”

“No you couldn’t, you’re a total slowpoke!”

“Could too, you’re the one who goes too slow!”

“Well… well maybe if Luna didn’t fall over she’d have gotten caught and not us!”

“You’re seriously blaming me…?”

“M-maybe we can resolve this peacefully, you guys?”

“-and Reimu’s going to give me pats on the head and maybe dango, and-“

“You guys are always messing everything up!”

“Says the one who screwed up our plan in the village market-“

_“We don’t talk about the market incident, okay!?”_

“What the heck is going on here?”

At the sound of a new voice, all five present went quiet, staring at the top of the shrine’s stairs, where an incredibly confused Reimu had just appeared.

“…Looks like I can’t even go out to buy groceries without some new crazy shenanigan happening up here, huh.”

Seeing the shrine maiden’s return, Aunn’s whole face lit up – both of her faces, actually – and she jumped to her two pairs of feet, each body holding a fairy.

“Miss Reimu! Look! I captured these interloping fairies while you were gone! They tried to sneak in under my nose, but I didn’t let them, no way!”

Reimu looked over her with a blank stare, as if trying to figure out whether or not she was serious.

“Uh… they just hang around here, actually, it’s fine.”

Aunn let go of them, looking a little crestfallen. All of that hard work and chasing had been for nothing?

“B-but! But, uh, if… uh, they _were_ here to cause trouble,” she added, noticing Aunn’s face, “then you’d have done a really great job! So, good job.” She reached forward, ruffling the girl’s hair, and her smile appeared near-instantly, as big as it had been all day, and she wormed further into Reimu’s touch.

“…This another one of your interlopers?” she asked, looking at Narumi.

“Oh, no! That’s my new friend! She helped me catch them!”

“N-no, really, um, that was all you!” the jizou youkai stammered defensively. “N-no need to take credit for it!”

“It was both of us, silly! Miss Reimu, we stood here the whole time you were gone and kept all the thieves out!”

“…Right.” Reimu doubted that there were many thieves invading the shrine while she was gone, and honestly, looked like she had done all of the caring she was going to do about this situation. She was cold and she had foodstuffs to bring in, and dealing with a bunch of meddlesome youkai was really the least of her concerns right now. But…

“Do… you guys wanna come inside for tea? It’s pretty cold out. And if you’ve really been out all day…”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to intrude,” Narumi began, but she was interrupted by two excited komainu shouts at once.  
  
“Yeeeeah, tea! Let’s get tea!”

Followed by much enthusiastic fairy cheer, naturally, and a little grin from Reimu.

“Alright, sure, wipe the snow off before you come in, alright?”

In no time at all, the whole group was piled beneath the warmth of the shrine’s kotatsu. The three fairies had taken three of the sides, and Aunn leaned happily into Narumi’s side on the remaining edge.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” she asked happily, lapping at the tea in her cup. “We did a whoooole lot!”

Narumi nodded, giggling somewhat nervously. It sure was… a lot, yes, but she also had to admit it was kind of fun.

“Way better than standing guard by myself, or even two of myself. I’m glad you’re my friend.”

“W-we’re friends!?” Narumi gasped, looking a little surprised.

“Um… yeah! How could we not be after all that fun? You’re a really good friend!”

“Oh! Um… so are you!”

She hid a bashful smile behind the rim of her cup as she took another drink. These past few months had been a little less lonely.


End file.
